Friday, August 29, 2014

This first card was a bit of a "warm-up" card from my weekend stamping extravaganza. I had flown into Calgary (only 1.5 hour flight), and then had a two hour commute to Lethbridge. It was an alright drive, plenty of fun conversation and pretty landscapes to watch, however, the creative juices don't always flow easily when you're just sitting down to get started. For this card, I found a cheerful colour scheme and decided to go with the cluster approach. One thing I really like about this set is that it has the solid images that match the swirly floral design. I stamped my images once off for the solid image and then stamped the swirl directly over top. It worked out quite well! Colours used here were Pear Pizzazz, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, and Strawberry Slush, plus Black.

For this next card, I wanted to try Stampin' Up!'s new blendabilities markers. I went with the Melon Mambo and Old Olive families. I stamped a similar cluster design of the flowers and leaves in Memento's Tuxedo Black and got to work colouring them. For the lighter flowers, I coloured the flower first with the lightest marker, then loosely followed the swirl with the medium marker. For the smaller flowers, I coloured the flower first with the medium marker, then loosely followed the swirl with the dark marker. The leaves were done using the same basic idea- light marker for the whole image, medium marker for the swirl. I ended up outlining everything with a grey marker to give it an extra pop.

I rarely do diagonal type designs, but my crafty friend Chera encouraged me to do it. I'm glad I did, the more I looked at the card, the more it grew on me!

Colours used here were Melon Mambo, Basic Black, and White.

For my last card, I wanted a simple design- something other than my go-to cluster stamping. I stamped the flowers and leaves on white card stock and then cut those out. I positioned the center flower on mounting tape to pop it up. All of the flowers have a bit of clear Wink of Stella on them. This last weekend was my first time using that stuff, it's great! I finished off this card with a fun sentiment from WPlus9's Strictly Sentiments 5.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I had a fun filled crafty weekend out in Alberta at my friend Chera's house. The "excuse"for the trip was PTI's Stamp-A-Faire event. I only ended up doing a few of the challenges, however I had a goal to make 25 different cards over the weekend. I ended up exceeding the goal and made 27 over 3 days. I thought that was pretty good!

I brought several sets out there and had the chance to play with lots of Chera's stamps that I don't (yet) own.

I liked what I had seen made with this pear set (Punny Produce: Pears) so far, but it wasn't really on my list. Then I had the chance to play with it, and I just loved watercolouring it! I stamped it in Ranger's archival ink. I used a few distress inks- Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seeds and a little bit of Stampin' Up!'s Early Espresso.

This next card features Spring Blooms. This is a set that I've always wanted, however I haven't had the chance to purchase it yet. I love how it has so much potential for many different looks. This is the first of quite a few cards I made with this set. For this one, I stamped the leaves and flowers onto some watercolour paper with distress inks. Next I painted over the images, blended a bit of ink to give a soft background and added some splatters for extra texture!

Friday, August 15, 2014

I don't really remember what my inspiration for this card was. I guess I wanted to use a bunch of distress inks and see what happened! I sponged distress ink all over some cotton card stock and spritzed it with water. I added in some more sponging since I wanted a bit more vibrancy. Next, I stamped one of the background triangle images from Trifecta and filled random triangles with solid and patterned smaller triangles.

I decided to add a scalloped border on there. I was looking for some ribbon the coordinated nicely with the colours and found some of this old stitched Baja Breeze that went nicely! I finished it off with a layered butterfly die cut and an embossed thanks die cut.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

This week's Make It Monday focused on making backgrounds with embossing paste.

I've only just recently started playing with embossing paste. I've mostly used it in single colours at a time- usually the white that it comes as, or with jazzing it up with reinkers. I've tried to do some blending, but hadn't had much success at first. After lots of practice and several garbaged attempts, I have started to get more consistent results that I've been happy with.

Some tips for success-

1) Make sure you have a bit more space than you're used to working in. Stuff gets messy and it's best if you can temporarily place tools and whatnot down away from the project. Likewise, make sure you have plenty of cleaning supplies handy.
2) Until you get better at blending, work in similar colour families. Start by colouring the paste with your lightest reinker. When you scrape off the excess, add in your next slightly darker reinker. This way each colour is built upon the previous colour. For my card here, I started with Orange Zest reinker, my next colour was Berry Sorbet, and then I finished with Pure Poppy.
3) Don't be afraid to make your own stencils. I did that here using the Quatrefoil coverplate.

I like the look of the swirl thread behind a main sentiment that I've been seeing a lot lately. On Laura's card she showed how to achieve this look by using the circle scribble vellum dies. I liked this choice since it was more controlled and it was super easy to attach the circle.

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Over the weekend, I had packed up a few stamp sets, inks, and papers and was off house-sitting. I really wanted to try a few background stamping techniques, but didn't have any background stamps with me. I did, however, have the Wet Paint Alphabet with me. I took a look at how the letters were all arranged on the plastic sheet they came on and thought, "hey, that'd make a good background". I temporarily adhered the plastic sheet to a larger acrylic block, inked the stamps up with Fresh Snow, and then stamped it onto some water colour paper. I applied a coating of clear embossing powder, heated it, then washed a few colours over it.

The colours I chose, from left to right are New Leaf, Tropical Teal, Blueberry Sky, Ripe Avocado.﻿

I wasn't sure what kind of card to make, given that anything with an alphabet background reminds me of school, so I thought maybe I could make a congratulations card and then I have a school related or perhaps a graduation card, ready to go!

Disclosure

My blog uses cookies and affiliate link when possible at no extra cost to yous, meaning that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive compensation. I use affiliate links to Papertrey Ink to link you to the products I use and enjoy. Affiliate linking helps support my crafting. All opinions are my own, I do not offer paid endorsements/reviews.